Milestones: 2006

National Network Design Committee

National Network Design Committee Co-chair: Dr. Bruce Hayden, University of Virginia Co-chair: Dr. William Michener, University of New Mexico Dr. Chaitan Baru, San Diego Supercomputer Center, UCSD Dr. Carol Brewer, University of Montana Dr. Deborah Estrin, UCLA Dr. Jerry Franklin, University of Washington Dr. Jeffrey Goldman, UCLA Dr. William Hargrove, USDA Forest Service Dr. Leonard Krishtalka, University of Kansas Dr. Margaret Lowman, New College of Florida Dr. James MacMahon, Utah State University Dr. Knute Nadelhoffer, University of Michigan Dr. Margaret Palmer, University of Maryland Dr. Steward Pickett, Institute of Ecosystem Studies Dr. Dean Urban, Duke University…

Conceptual Design Review (CDR)

Representatives of the National Ecological Observatory Network presented project details and fielded questions from an NSF panel during the NEON Conceptual Design Review in La Jolla, California, November 6-9, 2006. More than two dozen ecologists, technology experts, NEON Project Office staff, and NEON, Inc. Board members participated in the review, which was held at the San Diego Super Computer Center and Calit2 Synthesis Center. The CDR panel was charged with evaluating the planning progress for all aspects of NEON, including science and education, governance, budget, performance requirements, major system components, and cyberinfrastructure interfaces.

Request For Information (RFI)

In October 2006, the NEON Project Office announced a Request for Information (RFI) inviting members of the ecological research community to submit ideas about how they would use NEON observational and cyberinfrastructure resources to address the science goals of the NEON Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP). The office received more than 60 responses from the ecological research community, including recommendations for research designs, experimental designs, and wildland sites where NEON observational resources could be deployed.

Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP)

The NEON design team relied on extensive input from the broader ecological community in order to define the scientific scope for NEON in its Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP). This document translates the National Research Council’s “grand challenges in the environmental sciences” into a set of critical scientific questions, the measurements and data needed to address these questions, and the observatory infrastructure required to provide the answers.

Networking and Informatics Baseline Design (NIBD)

The Networking and Informatics Baseline Design (NIBD) describes NEON cyberinfrastructure (CI) and networked sensor instrumentation, as well as the design principles for cyberinfrastructure and embedded (ECI), and the technical architecture for processing and storing NEON data.